Do you want to become more effective? Do you want to use your time effectively? I’d like to give you just one key principle on how to use time effectively. I believe that using this principle can make a big difference in your life. The principle is opportunity cost. You see, it’s easy to assume that time is a renewable resource. You might think that there is still tomorrow to do what you are supposed to do. But the fact…
Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Facebook New Year’s Day is right around the corner, and you’re already making a list of resolutions, or resolution-like alternatives. This is the year you make big changes and give yourself the life you’ve always wanted. There’s only one problem: Fulfilling your New Year’s resolutions is not an easy task.We all know the stories of people who go to the gym for the first few weeks of January and then gradually stop going. It takes a lot of effort…
Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Facebook Whether you take full-time or part-time classes, school demands most of your time. It’s a juggling act to balance class time, homework and your other responsibilities. Some people find their rhythm in the first month of school and learn how to delegate their time. Others, not so much.It isn’t always easy to learn how to manage your time, especially if you have so many things needing your attention all at once. Students know the struggle, often…
I will be honest with you, as a person that’s been blogging since 2016 almost always on a weekly basis, I’ve had my share of writer’s block. And I must say that not being able to write when you feel that you need to is one of the most annoying things that a writer can experience. No joke. Knowing that there are many others out there that need help with this problem, I decided to create a list of 13…
Have you ever set out to do something on your to-do list while job searching and realize that the day has slipped by and nothing on that list got completed? If yes, then you’ll definitely benefit from these 3 time management hacks to use while job searching. These are tips I personally utilize to make sure that whenever I have a busy day or a ton of distractions, I can stay committed and focused on the task at hand. Although…
Do you ever have a stretch of time where you are so busy it feels like you can’t even pause to catch your breath? If so, you need to look at building margin into your life. Such a pace is impossible to maintain in the long run, and can lead us to both burnout and poor performance on the tasks we are trying to get done. I can get frantically busy. These days it is generally only for a day…
If you’re interested in personal productivity, you have more than likely at least heard of Getting Things Done (GTD)—the productivity system designed to move every task, idea, and project that’s currently in your head (where they’re prone to stressing you out and bubbling up when you’re trying to focus) into an organized outside system.While the entire GTD system is worth diving into, it contains one often overlooked strategy that can massively improve your productivity, focus, and time management: The 2-minute…
Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Facebook Your schedule is packed, but there’s still more that you wish you could do — and despite your best efforts, you can’t find a way to squeeze even one more second out of your week. At times like these, you can turn to personal time management apps to transform your schedule, cut out wasted time and optimize your time management.Below, we’ll cover some of the best personal time management software out there — and we’ll also…
Knowing how to relieve stress in your life is very important. Continuous stress can cause some consequential health problems to a person like depression, personality disorder or heart problems like high blood pressure, heart attack, etc. Finding More Ways to Relieve Stress It is very detrimental to you. It is said that having stress is normal nowadays. According to research, 35-55% of people face stress in their daily life. Most of the people blame social media for this. But social…
While many jobs follow some sort of seasonality, knowledge work doesn’t.There’s no slow season when you’re building a company, designing apps, or developing software. But placing that same expectation for nonstop growth and output on yourself is a recipe for burnout. There’s no slow season when you’re building a company, designing apps, or developing software. But placing the same expectation for nonstop growth and output on yourself is a recipe for burnout. Click To TweetAs we’ve written in the past,…
There’s no denying the reality of the afternoon slump. Even the most motivated people can find themselves extremely tired by midday. And whether it’s due to a lack of sleep or a heavy lunch doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that it’s impacting your ability to get things done.As we’ve written in the past, there are all sorts of factors that contribute to our energy, motivation, and focus throughout the day. And knowing what to do when you feel…
“There just aren’t enough hours in the day.” Chances are, you’ve muttered this at some point during your workday. Thanks to the constant barrage of meetings, emails, and instant messages we receive, free time is a scarce commodity. Time management has grown into an empire of applications, software, and hardware all with the sole purpose of making sure every minute you spend at work is productive. Source: GIPHY Enter the mobile device. Despite headlines stating that mobile devices are…
Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Facebook You’re hitting the road, be it for business or pleasure. However, you can’t ignore the pile that has accumulated on your desk any longer. Can you juggle travel and work at the same time? Of course, you can!If you want to supercharge your productivity while jet-setting, you need a plan. The choices you make determine how much you can accomplish. Consider these tips the next time you find yourself wondering how to work while traveling.1. Bring…
With the popularity of entrepreneurs like Gary Vaynerchuk and the rise of hustle culture, it feels like everyone is working more hours than ever—and struggling as a result. As we’ve written in the past, overwork leads to all sorts of problems including impaired sleep, heavy drinking, and depression.But too much work isn’t the only issue. There’s another (very different) challenge that’s increasingly affecting today’s workforce: downtime.No, we’re not talking about taking time off (which is one of the best things…
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | | More It’s an infinite resource but you get only so much. The richest man on his deathbed would give all of his wealth for a just little more. It goes so slowly forward but so fast in reverse. It’s your most important tool to leverage for wealth, health, healing, and relationships. Use it poorly and you’ll put yourself in a prison of regrets. Use it wisely and…
Ever since we’ve had things to remember, we’ve set reminders. Whether it’s the ding of an app or a string tied around your finger, memory devices help offload our need to remember everything all the time.But there’s a downside to all those reminders. When you outsource your memory to other devices, you’re not only helping relieve the stress of remembering. But also adding to it.Let’s say you’re settling into the flow of a project when Ding! A calendar notification pops up…
I have a hard time saying no. Perhaps you do too. This problem is more common than we think, especially for those who are empathetic or nurturing. We just hate the thought of hurting someone else’s feelings. It was a long time before I noticed this problem in myself. For most of my career, I’ve had administrative assistants who said no for me. If someone had a request, they had to get through an assistant first. This gave me the…
Most people use their calendars reactively, meaning that they put things on their calendars as they come up. Someone wants to grab coffee? On the calendar. The boss calls a meeting? On the calendar. A conference call with the publishing team? On the calendar. The problem with this approach is that it can lead to the day getting very chopped up, which then makes it difficult to get things done which require in-depth thinking. If you’re constantly interrupted by meetings, phone…
There are few workday tools people use more than their calendars. Tools like Google Calendar act as a gatekeeper for your attention—broadcasting when you’re available or when you’re busy.In fact, one of the most common pieces of advice we hear from time management experts is to schedule every aspect of your day. As ‘America’s organizing queen’ Julie Morgenstern, told us:“A to-do that isn’t connected to a ‘when’ rarely gets done. So don’t have a separate to-do list from your calendar.…
What is your definition of success? Everyone might have different answers to this question, but I believe that true success comes from contributing to a cause that matters to you in a balanced way. There are two parts here. First, you need to contribute to a cause that matters to you. Second, you need to do that in a balanced way. If you do these two things, you will have a fulfilling life. The fact is, balance is essential to…
Photo by Marcel Hol from FreeImagesThe following post is a guest contribution from Stewart Dunlop. I haven’t taken guest posts in a while but the topic of burnout has come up a lot lately and when Stewart asked if he could write something about for my blog, I jumped at the chance. Stewart is a content guy at Foundr with a passion for writing articles that you will want to read. In his free time, he likes to play football, and read…
We all go through periods of feeling lost, confused, and overwhelmed at work. And who wouldn’t want an expert or trusted friend to pop in at that very moment and right the course?Unfortunately, few of us get that kind of personalized attention. Instead, we continue to make many of the same mistakes over and over. But what if it didn’t have to be this way?This got us thinking about a specific question: What would the experts tell you if they…
Most people wear a lot of hats every day. Your title might be “senior developer” but you’re also “pseudo-project manager,” “part-time designer” and “chief of inbox relations.” In our own research, we found that software developers spend just 41% of their time each day doing… well, software development.Yet, the problem isn’t just that we wear many hats, but that we try to wear them all at once.Most of us spend our days jumping between tasks and tools. In fact, one study found most…
Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Facebook When you walk into work every day, you probably have a general idea of what your routine is. You clock in, take care of your morning responsibilities, enjoy a lunch break and finish the day with more work.Even though you may experience the same routine every week, the fine details are easy to change. That may affect your productivity, depending on how you plan your workday.If you feel like your productivity could use a boost, check…
We all go through more stressful and less stressful times of the year. In those more stressful times, it’s so important we’re able to really recognize what’s causing us stress specifically, rather than saying it’s work in general. Below, we’ve explored some of the most common causes of stress, based on what we’ve been hearing in our time management training. Along with exploring those stress areas, we, of course, also suggest some solutions. It wouldn’t be a Productivity Ninja blog…
Does the mere sight of your inbox cause you to sweat? You’re not alone. In 2017, technology research firm The Radicati Group estimated 132 billion business emails are being sent per day!Most people deal with some form of email overload. In fact, when we looked at the communication patterns of 50,000+ RescueTime users, we found that most people check their inbox or chat app every 6 minutes.Yet despite being one of the most commonly used workplace tools, few people think…
Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Facebook The idea of working from home has only become a reality in the last decade. As technology changes and the internet becomes more widely available, people are easily able to work from home in many different career fields.Making the leap from working in an office to working from home is a big one. There are countless changes to get used to. It makes people wonder if they’ll be as successful from home as they are at…
To reach your full potential, you should optimize your days. But how do you do that? Here I’d like to share with you tactics to do it that I learned from the world of chess. Back in 2013, I wrote an article titled Optimizing Your Life One Move at a Time. There I wrote about what I learned from watching the World Chess Championship at that time. I noticed that the moves the players made were colored according to how…
In your eyes, how does a “successful” person spend their time? Do they work tirelessly every hour of the day and night? Are they constantly rushing from one meeting to the next, never really coming up for air? Can they be spotted every day eating their lunch at their desk, whilst dialling into a conference call and checking their emails all at the same time? If you think this is what “successful” looks like, then, in most cases, you’re wrong.…
We frequently hit busy spans which make us hope for more than 24 hours in a day. As a Productivity Ninja, you will know, no matter how many hours you spend at the office – the work never stops. Keeping that in mind, it’s important to use your time to rest and recharge. But are you giving your sleeping patterns as much attention as you invest in your projects? Chances are, the answer is no. The recommended amount of sleep for those…